To study the motivation for suicide of the group with the highest suicide rate in the population: men and women aged 50 to 75. To contrast the mental health and psychosocial conflicts of this suicidal group with a comparable non-suicidal group in order to determine what adaptive resources may be available to the non-suicidal that are not available to the suicidal. To obtain from the comparative analysis of the two groups a profile of the psychological and social pressures on this age group, and a picture of the causes and significance of suicide among them. To determine if psychodynamic interviewing is a useful research tool for these purposes and (a) whether its insights and techniques are susceptible to coding, quantification and replication in such a way as (b) to permit it to mesh with psychological and sociological techniques for the study of suicide.